Early Jersey Colours – the first 80 years

We have spent much time researching Gloucester’s early colours, as part of our investigation into the Cherry & White story, but we’ve been hampered by the lack of colour photographs. The first ones to attempt to show Cherry & White were hand-tinted photos dating from 1897/98 and 1902/03. Surprisingly, the first team photo we have that was taken in full colour was not until the Knockout Cup winning team in 1972, and official team photos continued to be in black & white until 1986/87.

Instead, we’ve had to rely upon written evidence of the colours of Gloucester’s jerseys, and then used Photoshop to colourise black and white images. We don’t claim that the tints are exact, but we do believe that they are representative.